SUNDAY BEST: For trio, coaching life was born at Bear Stadium

The gospel they preach is a tried-and-true method that has brought a high degree of success at the high school level.

For Boyertown’s Todd Moyer, Pottstown’s Jeff Evans and Owen J. Roberts’ Greg Gilbert, the baseball field is a cathedral of sorts.

It is where they deliver the message that was passed down to them more than a generation ago from the “Good Book” of Dick Ludy, who coached all three of them for Boyertown’s high school and Legion teams.

“You could say we were molded under the same anvil,” is how Moyer put it.

When Evans took over as the Trojans’ head man last spring and joined the Pioneer Athletic Conference coaching fraternity, it served as somewhat of a reunion for the three good friends and longtime teammates for the Gabelsville Owls adult baseball squad.

Their combined success speaks for itself: more than 800 wins and 22 league championships.

Beyond the wins and losses, though, is a bond of mutual respect and friendship that has lasted through the years.

The trio’s squads have squared off numerous times over the past two decades. And whether it be a non-league, PAC-10 or playoff-type setting, those games usually take on an extra meaning.

“There is that mutual respect for one and other,” Gilbert said. “We know we’re going to see a similar style, and you know you have to be prepared for a well-coached team.”

* * *The 52-year-old Moyer is the elder statesmen of the trio. A 1978 Boyertown grad, he went on to play at Mansfield University and began his coaching career as an assistant under Bears coach Ron Jameson for seven years before succeeding Jameson in 1994.

And though Moyer was more of a hitting guru during his playing days, he was smart enough to know the traditional Boyertown approach made famous by Ludy — that small ball (bunting, taking pitches, stealing bases and otherwise manufacturing runs) could translate into big things. That, however, wasn’t the only thing he picked up from his coaching influences.

“For me, Coach Ludy was always so intense about preparation and the way we played,” he said. “He was so meticulous about all the little things. He made average baseball players better.

“Ron was always organized at practice, ‘This is what we’re going to do it, and how we’re going to do it.’ He was more of a players’ coach. Guys understood how we were going to get things done.”

The Bears have gotten plenty done during Moyer’s 20-year tenure. Through Saturday’s action, he has compiled a 326-107 record highlighted by 10 league championships. Since joining the PAC-10 in 2003, the Bears have gone 153-40 in league play and have won six PAC-10 crowns.

Moyer’s on-field persona is defined by a demanding intensity no doubt inherited from Ludy.

“Todd just carries that presence,” Evans said. “Of the three of us, he’s the most vocal guy. I think he’s calmed down a little bit, like we all have as we’ve gotten older.

“Todd is also a very good teacher of the game. He’s been blessed with good talent there, and his expectations are high.”

During Moyer’s first four years, the Bears won three Berks Conference titles and were co-District 3-AAA champions in 1995.

When Boyertown joined the PAC-10, the Bears became instant (and perennial) title contenders. Moyer guided Boyertown to five straight PAC-10 titles from 2004-08, and last year the Bears also brought home the league crown.

“Boyertown, except for a couple of years, has always been near the top,” Gilbert said. “It’s always going to be a tough battle when you play them. It’s a big school, and baseball’s an important part of that community. Kids from when they’re little on up aspire to play for the high school team.”

“For me, it’s been an advantage because the kids I have know the mystique and know the the history,” said Moyer. “Greg and Jeff both had to go somewhere else and form their own, they had to start their own (successful) program.”

* * *Evans was actually the first of the three to land a head baseball coaching position, taking over at Oley Valley in 1992.

After leading the Lynx to a 70-43 mark over five seasons, he moved on to Wilson in 1997. During his 14 years at Wilson, Evans racked up five Berks championships and compiled a 185-103 record.

In his rookie campaign at Pottstown last season, the Trojans went just 6-14 but suffered a number of close defeats and showed a competitive spark that set the stage for what has been a remarkable turnaround this spring.

Through Saturday’s games, Pottstown (8-5, 9-6) had a realistic shot at qualifiying for the PAC-10’s Final Four playoffs for the first time since the format began in 2009.

“There were some growing pains to some degree (last year),” Evans said. “But I really don’t think I’m going out on a limb by saying at the end of the year we were playing as good as anybody. We hurt ourselves by droping a lot of one-run games early, but by the second half of the year we were a quality team even though our record didn’t show it. And I think we’ve made great strides this year.”

The 47-year-old Evans was a corner infielder at Boyertown before — like Moyer — playing collegiately at Mansfield. At each of his stops, he has been able to implement what he learned under Ludy.

“It’s not like you’re reinventing the wheel, but the thing is you want to make sure your players are buying into what you’re doing,” Evans said. “That’s the big part of it. Both Todd and Greg have done that (at Boyertown and Owen J. Roberts), and consistently done that. It’s a little bit more of a challenge with me, dealing with players that have never been indoctrinated or accustomed to that kind of baseball.”

“I think he’s got a really nice group of kids,” Gilbert said of the Trojans, who defeated Owen J. Roberts 10-6 last Friday. “They’ve really turned the attitude around from what I can tell. They have a very strong belief that they can win and they can compete, and that’s different. It can sometimes be tough to turn the tide with attitudes when you’re used to losing, but he has gotten them to buy in and believe.”

After winning just nine combined games the previous two seasons, Pottstown has that many thus far this year.

“The key is consistency,” Evans said. “With an 18-game league schedule and how tough this conference is, you want to be consistent. Teams that are going to make the playoffs are going to have ups and downs throughout the year, and the teams that are going to be around at the end are going to be the ones that are consistent through the peaks and valleys. We want to try and be as consistent as we can and play as well as we can, and hopefully we’ll be one of those teams at the end.”

* * *The 47-year-old Gilbert and Evans have been close friends since their high school days, when they both played quarterback for the Bears and were teammates on the baseball squad.

They were both the best man in each other’s weddings, and hunting buddies. Gilbert was actually an assistant coach to Evans during his rookie campaign at Oley Valley.

An infielder at Boyertown who went on to play at West Virginia, Gilbert was an assistant for the Mountaineers for two years, an assistant coach under Bobby Houck at Berks Legion power Shillington during the mid-90s and a junior high coach at Methacton for a year before taking over at Owen J. Roberts in 1998.

Under Gilbert’s directon, the Wildcats brought home PAC-10 titles in each of his first four seasons and have won seven league titles during his 16 years at the helm.

“I try to implement a lot of things we learned from Dick Ludy,” said Gilbert, who has a 232-109 career mark. “Move runners, bunt and steal bases. Put pressure on the defense.

“I really think Dick Ludy far and away was one of my most important coaching influences. I think you pick things up from all of the coaches you play for, and I was fortunate enough to play for a wide variety of coaches with different styles. But Dick was really the influential person in my coaching style — he was so knowledgeable about the game and the strategy that goes into the game.”

Though the Wildcats have struggled over the past two seasons, they were in the PAC-10 final as recently as 2011, and advanced all the way to the PIAA-AAAA championship game in 2010, when they also brought home their second straight league title.

“I think Greg is a very, very good communicator,” Evans said. “He’s a very good teacher, and I think he gets the most out of his players, and they respect hima lot. He’s a diehard. He’s going to go out there and try to outwork you and out-think you.”

* * *When Moyer’s Boyertown team, Gilbert’s Owen J. Roberts squad, and any of the three teams coached by Evans have hooked up through the years, the stakes are seemingly ratcheted up a notch.

At the very least, bragging rights are at stake. And on some occasions, titles have been on the line.

Moyer’s Bears outfit took down Evans’ Oley teams in the semis en route to winning the Berks title in 1996; Evans’ Wilson squad earned a 16-10 Berks championship victory over Boyertown in 2000; Gilbert’s Wildcats took down the Bears in the PAC-10 semis on the way to the 2009 league championship; and Evans’ Bulldogs took a non-leaguer from OJR when the Wildcats made it to the state final in 2010.

“Every time we played Boyertown (in Berks League action) it was a battle,” Evans said. “And even after Boyertown left (the Berks League), we always played against them and Greg (in non-league games).

“But it is a different story now when it’s in (PAC-10) league play and you play them twice. We know each other very well. We know what each other’s tendencies are. We all grew up in playing in the same system, and it carries over to the same way we coach.”

“It’s definitely a rivalry, and it’s always been there,” said Moyer. “It’s just a little more magnified because the coach of the other team knows so much about us, and you always want your kids to play well when we play against them.

“They know so much about us and what we’re going to do, and I’m sure it’s the same way on the other side. All three of us came from the same tree, I guess you could say.”

A tree whose branches have cast a very large shadow over the Pioneer Athletic Conference baseball landscape.

“I think a lot of it is where you come from and what you expect of your players,” Moyer said. “If you can get them to focus on the little things, you can put together a solid team, have good season, win some big games along the way and earn respect. That’s how you build a program: try and keep it positive and keep the players believing the plan can work, whatever it is. That’s what we’ve tried to do here, and I think both Jeff and Greg have done that as well.”